Overflowing with inspiration

[gement]

I start feeling full of interesting ideas when I'm avoiding something. In this case I'm avoiding contacting my library-related contacts, but the side benefits are very interesting.

I want to write a 24 Hour Comic. Can anyone recommend a good instructional book on cartooning/semi-representational sketching? I don't want to draw photorealistic Wonder Woman. I just want to be able to draw a dog, or a man facing in a couple different directions, without having to reinvent the wheel.

I'm still working on the guitar thing, though I've taken a few days off from it. I've been listening to a CD of belly dancing rhythms until I hear them in my sleep, so the next time I pick up my dumbek I should have a better feel for it.

I sorted all my art supplies and all my office supplies, reducing the space they take in my room. Next targets are the toy box, the giant bin of unsorted VHS tapes, and *shudder* the book shelves. I will reduce the quantity of crap I'm lugging around, no matter how much it hurts.

I'm gearing up to put the game transcripts from my Buffy campaign on the web. I've put it off due to group editing concerns, but at this point I'll just take those as they come.

Most entertaining (a couple hours work yesterday), I've started developing a Geek Hanky Code. It's ... significantly more information dense than the usual hanky codes, and probably should be in PDA format. Details coming soon, but in the short term, anyone who really likes data structures want to help me with how to handle multiply-inclusive categories? I have no idea what kind of structure works best for this foolishness.

Comments

[ocicat.livejournal.com]

This won't help with the actual drawing part, but have you read "Understanding Comics"?

[gement.livejournal.com]

I've browsed it. I feel pretty confident in my grasp of comics dynamics, it's just the basic Pictionary "what the hell is that" level of drawing that I need. I know a lot of it's practice, but I'm sure there are some basic pointers that make that practice a lot more useful.

[passionandsoul.livejournal.com]

You are such a geek- I adore you, and await your hanky code with baited breath.

Re:

[ocicat.livejournal.com]

Can't help you with that. My drawing skills are pretty limited. Like, uh, I can draw a pretty good cat!

[adularia.livejournal.com]

Cartoonists seem to get a lot out of maintaining a particular style. Maybe it would help to draw a couple "realistic" sketches (with zero or monochrome shading, and attention to outlines and forms) in a variety of poses and then work on adapting the realistic version to your own interpretative style.

I tend to dislike drawing books that promise How To Draw some object, as opposed to drawing books that say "See, understand, and interpret."

[gfish.livejournal.com]

That sounds like fun. If I can do a 48 hour movie, I'd like to think I could do this. As sad as it is, though, I found just doing Camera Obscura level art a real pain. Looking at the online rules, I don't think I could do 100 panels in 24 hours.

Hrm, maybe vixyish and I could team up for a try at this...

Re:

[gement.livejournal.com]

Exaaaactly. I believe that there must be some kind of book that explains what kinds of tricks "real cartoonists" use to fill in the gaps between rough shapes and reality, to make that See --> Interpret process go more smoothly.

Your suggestion is a good one, though. I'll have to see about that. I also got a copy of "22 panels that always work", a standard cartoonist's reference page done by a really cool artist a very long time ago, that has a few of the common shorthands on it.